On the day he died, Nicolas Ramirez Castro called his family to his bedside. After fighting a rare form of childhood liver cancer for nearly a year and a half, he had something important to say.

His 10-year-old sister Natalia stretched out next to him on the bed, and his brother Jorgito, 15, clasped his hand. His father held him, and his mother knelt at his side.

“Today is the day,” he whispered to them. “Today, I have to say goodbye.”

Less than an hour later on Nov. 18, he died at the age of 11.

The outgoing boy everyone knew as “Nico” imagined himself a professional soccer player, a student at Harvard University and the owner of a candy shop.

At age 3, when he started playing soccer with his older brother, his parents noticed that, unlike other children who typically run in a pack for the ball, Nico held back from the group. Instead, he hovered nearby, waiting for the ball to break loose before he pounced.

Soccer was his great passion — the family living room was nearly empty because so much furniture had been broken by a flying soccer ball. But he brought the same focus and determination to other goals.

For example, he worried that his plans to attend Harvard might conflict with his professional soccer career, and he frequently asked his mother how he could balance both pursuits.

After he stopped playing soccer, he planned a joint business venture with his younger sister — a candy shop that was to be called “Candy Heaven.”

“When he set his mind on something, he was very serious about it,” Castro Ramirez said. “Of my three children, he was the one who was always thinking about his future. And that's what made it so hard when we were told he had cancer.”

By the time Nico was diagnosed with heptocellular carcinoma in July 2011, the cancer already had spread to his heart. He underwent surgery and chemotherapy in Houston and San Antonio without success. He later made frequent trips to Houston to participate in two clinical trials.

While undergoing treatment, Nico met several Houston Dynamo players. With his knack for engaging adults in conversation and his knowledge of the sport, he offered the Dynamo players his advice. When he recently met Kofi Sarkodie, No. 8 for the Dynamos, he asked the player why he was spending so much time on the bench.

“He said, ‘You're really good. I think the coach should give you more playing time,'” said Jorge Ramirez, Nico's father, who was his full-time caregiver. “It was just amazing. He believed in people and their ability to succeed.”

Throughout most of his illness, Nico often reassured his family that he would be all right. Until his last moments, his mother said, he sought to spare them the pain of knowing how much he had suffered.

“He went through so much pain and found the courage and strength to almost hide it from us,” she said.

After Nico told them he needed to say goodbye, he said he loved them, and added a final request.